Cases for transporting and storing beverage cartons and bottles have long been known. Wooden and metal cases have been used to accommodate beverage cartons and bottles for many years. More recently, plastic molded rectangular beverage cases have been developed and are now widely used. Typically, the plastic beverage case is injection molded of polypropylene, polyethylene or a similar long chain cross-linked polyolefin. The beverage cases are required to be sufficiently structurally sound to withstand repeated use in both the full, partially full and empty condition. As a result, the molded plastic beverage cases are customarily provided with four full sides that extend from the bottom to the top of the case.
The service to which the beverage cases is put includes edge to edge stacking in both the full and empty condition to form columns three high, four high or higher. In addition, recent efforts have developed rectangular plastic molded beverage cases which can both be stacked and nested. The design requires that the longitudinal side of the beverage case be partially open. The stacking feature is directed principally for the full or loaded condition and nesting is used principally for storing and transporting cases in the empty condition. Stacking occurs by arranging the beverage case with the bottom edge of a beverage case on the upper edge of the beverage case directly below. Nesting occurs by placing the beverage cases alternatively transverse to each other.
There now also exist beverage cases having legs to elevate the carton or bottle support surface above floor level with the two shorter or lateral sides of the four rectangular sides extending above the two longer or longitudinal sides. The legs are provided to allow transport means to reach under the support surface to lift the beverage case. The extended lateral sides provide the surface edges on which the legs rest when the beverage cases are in the stacked condition. The two longitudinal sides adjacent the elevated sides provide access to the cartons resting on the support surface and facilitate nesting by presenting a depression into which a beverage case can fit when arranged transversely with another beverage case.